Freehold Life
Welcome to DFW Welcome to the sister-Freeholds of Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas! From Wikipedia: Dallas is the third-largest city in the state of Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The city covers almost 400 square miles and is the county seat of Dallas County. As of 2005, U.S. Census estimates put Dallas at a population of 1,213,825. The city is the main cultural and economic center of the 12-county Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area—at 6 million people, it is the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Dallas is one of 11 U.S. "world cities" also known as "global cities", as ranked by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network. From Wikipedia: "Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas, 18th-largest city in the United States and voted one of "America’s Most Livable Communities". Situated in North Texas, Fort Worth covers nearly 300 square miles in Tarrant and Denton counties, serving as the county seat for Tarrant County. As of the 2006 U.S. Census estimate, Fort Worth had a population of 653,320. It has become one of the fastest growing cities in the country due to its warm climate, numerous business opportunities, low cost of living and wide array of attractions. The city is the second-largest cultural and economic center of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. with a population of 6 million in 12 counties. All that out of the way, the short version is that Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) is big and sprawlly and there are lots of people in it. The cities are pretty closely intertwined (and the post office is pretty laid-back about what you put on the envelopes around here), and its two freeholds are similarly closely interconnected, going so far as to share a Hollow space in the Hedge with each other. We have shared coronation events and generally get along about as well as any big family can under the circumstances: we're Lost, we're Texans (by birth, by choice, by chance, or by necessity, you're One of Us while you're here), and we're family. ...we're just not necessarily not a dysfunctional family. Setting Details Unless your Changeling is very fresh from Arcadia, they will probably know that it is unusual for two Freeholds to share a Hollow space. As a general rule, a Freehold is confined to a single city, and the wyrd chooses a single monarch as the seasons change. Here in the DFW Freeholds, we have two cities sharing a combined space, and two monarchs per season. Sometimes this shared space causes friction. The Dallas Winter Queen, for instance, is openly hostile to both the Dallas and Fort Worth Summer Queens. And sometimes this shared space cultivates relationships; the Dallas Summer Queen is a close friend of the Fort Worth Spring King. If anyone asks about this unusual arrangement of space, the Freehold members will simply shrug and say that the hollow was a cooperative effort between two very small Freeholds, many many years ago, and that it was too nice for anyone to move out as the Freeholds grew. But Changelings who have moved here from other Freeholds may notice that the Hollow is very big and is clearly designed to house and feed a large number of Changelings, almost in anticipation of a siege. But, hey, it's Texas. Everything is bigger here. Things to Consider Why did you move to Dallas-Fort Worth? Well, maybe you didn't have a lot of choice: possibly you stumbled out of the Hedge here when you fled Arcadia, or maybe you're one of the Lost who James Arlet pulled from Arcadia by sacrificing your Fetch. Possibly you had some choice, but it wasn't entirely under your control: we've got our fair share of Changelings who fled other Freeholds and ended up here courtesy of the airport hub. DFW is a great place to lose yourself in. But if you moved here voluntarily, you may have done so for the same reason that many humans move to the metroplex: the cost of living in Texas is ridiculously low and we spread out in the big spaces we have, so it's very easy to live "better" here for cheaper than wherever you came from. This attractive feature of the metroplex is reflected in the Freehold Hollow. There are free apartments for Changelings who don't mind living in the Hedge, and the apartments are relatively big (approx. 800 square foot one-bedroom floorplans), with a beautiful lakeside view--you may have seen the lake in one of Lindell Northman's paintings? Yeah, he likes to send scans to the other Freeholds in the country, bit of a show-off, but there you have it. (Wait, did you see the pretty pastel colored one or the emo-one he painted a year later? The truth is something in between.) Anyway! The apartments are more secure than might be found in other places outside, and there is a nightly (and very good) dinner hosted in the main building. Oh, and there's a lovely Freehold garden that provides a free allowance of health and glamour potions to the members. ...the drawback? Texas politics are shit. But I'm sure you'll be fine. Freehold Size and NPC Mechanics Now for some out-of-character cards-on-the-table. The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metroplex area is huge. Like, 6-million-people huge. The Freehold I'm used to in a previous game had maybe 50 characters, many of whom were nameless NPCs, but that was a smaller city. It's reasonable to me that the DFW Freeholds would have significantly more people, but there are limits on (a) my ability to model a large community and (b) my ability to play a representative sample of NPCs. So. The DFW Freeholds have approximately 600 'members, which is small for the actual metroplex but big for a Changeling game (at least in my experience). It's also about the size of a church I attended for a long time which means I feel pretty good about modelling the community interactions. Only '''40 '''of those members will be played as NPCs, but those NPCs shouldn't be assume to be the only members of their court (unless otherwise noted). For example, the Dawn court does not have a strong presence in DFW, but Sati should not be viewed as the ''only Dawn courtier. She's just the only one PCs will interact with, unless and until I have a reason to make more Dawns. Mechanically, you should never assume that you aren't being watched in the Freehold, unless you are in a private room that would reasonably shield you from prying eyes. (And even then... well.) If you're walking by the lake or talking in the gardens or running the track or whatever, nameless NPCs are in the background and they can see and sometimes hear you... ...and sometimes they will tell other PCs what they've seen. Freehold History The oldest member of the Freehold (by which I mean "the person who has been here the longest") is King Liam. He has been king for 10 years, and was here for 5 years prior to that. No one in the game has a memory prior to that point, and this is not for suspicious reasons that your character would notice and pick up on--it's because I didn't wanna create backstory farther back than '''15 years. (And most of the NPCs have been here considerably shorter than that.) The in-game handwave is that Changelings move around from Wanderlust, they recklessly die in the Hedge, they are occasionally captured again, etc. There are reasons for why the Freehold Hollow was built the way it was, and that definitely happened long before King Liam showed up--the Hollow itself is over one hundred years old--but those reasons will not be freely available to most Freehold members. Category:Hollow